Tuesday, November 16, 2010

My cousin's wife is about to have their first baby. Its a girl! I had hoped it would be a girl. See, this summer once I heard they were expecting, I began collecting antique linens and lace to make the new baby a beautiful dress so I had a vested interest that she would be a girl ;) My cousin's baby shower is this weekend, and I just finished the dress! All I used was a yard of quilting fabric and the lacey corners of an antique tablecloth. The pattern I came up with is so easy it can be done in 3 seams or less and can be adjusted to fit girls from 3 months to 2 years old and even longer if she uses it as a tank top. Read on for details, the pattern, and the tutorial...

This is a really simple, easy dress to make. The top of the dress is cinched to fit the child and then the tied in the back and the ends of the strap come over the shoulder and are slid through a button hole in the front and tied off. The simple design is what makes the dress so versatile and can fit the child for a long time, eventually transistioning from a dress into a tank top.

Step 1: First you need to start off with a rectangle of fabric 15" x 3' or 1 yard in length, and a length of 5' of ribbon.

For this dress, my pattern was a little more complicated because I added the antique tablecloth corners as an overlay. I also opted to make a fabric strap out the same quilting fabric because I couldnt find ribbon that worked with my fabric. For the overlay all I did was cut the corners off the antique tablecloth and sew them together so they were the same length as the rectangle of quilting fabric (3')

Step 2: Next fold the top 2 inches of the rectangle over the stretch of ribbon and sew the length of it on the back of the fabric. If you're doing an overlay too, fold that over as well. Like this...

Here's a closer shot...

Step 3: Take the two ends of the fabric and sew them together with the outside of the fabric facing each other.

Step 4: Fold the bottom of the rectangle and hem it. I gave mine an inch hem.

Step 5: Find the front and the center of the dress. Just below the cinching hem, cut a button hole and finish the edges.

Step 6: Cinch the top of the dress. Tie the straps in the back. Fold the end of the straps over to the front. Slip the ends through the button hole and tie!

And its done! See....simple right? And oh so darling. I cant wait to for my cousin's baby's arrival and I cant wait to see this sweet little dress on her!